About Hudson Stage

Founded in 1999 by its three producers Denise Bessette, Dan Foster and Olivia Sklar, Hudson Stage Company is the professional company in-residence at The North Castle Public Library in Armonk, NY.

Operating as a 501(c)(3) professional non-profit since its inception, HSC originally started doing staged readings of new works at the Croton Free Library. Its first performance venue was The Julie Harris Theatre at the Clearview School also located in Briarcliff Manor where the company’s first few productions were staged. From 2005 through early 2014 the company was hosted by Pace University in the more intimate Woodward Hall Theatre. As of July 2014 we are in residence at the Whippoorwill Hall Theatre of the North Castle Public Library in Armonk, NY.

As a flagship professional theatre in Westchester County, N.Y. Hudson Stage is dedicated to collaborating with top-flight actors, writers, directors and designers pooled from our area as well as NYC. The company presents a combination of world premieres and contemporary plays – with mainstage productions and several staged readings of new works presented throughout the year. One of the reading slots is dedicated to the educational outreach at local high schools. It showcases an evening of original works written and performed by the students.

We are proud of our loyal supporters who have helped sustain our commitment to excellence in providing the powerful, transformative experience of live theatre to our audiences.

To accomplish our mission Hudson Stage Company strives to:

Dedicate ourselves to discovering, developing and producing bold and unique plays with an emphasis on original works – both unpublished and/or new to our audience.

Offer a professional Off-Broadway experience to our suburban Westchester audience at an affordable cost.

Provide an artistic home in our community for the creative and professional development of actors, writers, directors and designers.

Encourage new talent in the community by providing a Young Playwrights Program for high school students, as well as internships in professional theater for university students.

Serve our audience by continuing to provide a stimulating, entertaining, inspirational choice of material with the highest of professional standards.

Co-Founders/Artistic Producers:

Denise Bessette is a co-founder and an Artistic Producer with Hudson Stage. She has co-produced all of its mainstage productions plus the staged reading series. As an actress, she most recently appeared in HSC’s God of Carnage, and previously in The Pursuit of Happiness, Kimberly Akimbo, and Full Bloom. She has worked regionally at Long Wharf Theatre, Huntington Theatre, the NJ Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In NY she was seen Off-Broadway in many shows and with Interact Theatre Company in LA, she co-produced and appeared in Burkie, Into the Woods, and Elmer Rice’s Counsellor-at-Law. Several years in script development were with the PBS series American Playhouse, the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, NY Stage and Film and the Writers’ Theatre. TV/Film appearances include Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Seinfeld. She holds a BA in Theatre from Marymount Manhattan College and trained with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, with Bill Esper in NYC and Milton Katselas in Los Angeles. An adjunct acting professor at Pace University, where HSC is in residence, she also teaches with the Purchase College summer acting program and private classes.

Dan Foster(Producer) is a co-founder of Hudson Stage Company. He has directed several productions for the company including Shining City, You Will Remember Me (American Premiere), Outside Mullingar,4000 Miles, Talley’s Folly, A Number, Stones in his Pockets, Murderers, Mary’s Wedding, Love Song, Boston Marriage, and Rabbit Hole. He has also produced, directed, and appeared in productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally.

He was Assoc. Director on Kindertransport and Pretty Fire (Manhattan Theatre Club), and Birds of Paradise (Promenade Theatre, Arthur Laurents, Dir.). Internationally he has directed at London’s Donmar Warehouse, Gran Teatre del Liceu, in Barcelona, and Theatre Estradi in Moscow. Regional productions include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, November,Other Desert Cities, Sunday in the Park with George, Twelfth Night, and the world premiere of The Molly Maguires. Recent work includes Direct from Broadway with Faith Prince and Anthony Warlow at the Sydney Opera House, Girl Powers at The Santa Fe Theater Festival,Seven starring Meryl Streep, The Festival of Broadway with Stephen Schwartz in Tasmania, Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit, and The Chocolate Show! at the 47th St. Theater. He directed the award-winning Sibling Revelry starring Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway in New York and London, and Boom! Live at Birdland. He was a member of the Circle Rep Directing Lab. As an actor, he appeared in the Broadway production of City of Angels, off-Broadway in Cymbeline, the Chicago production of Baby (JEFF Award nomination, Best Actor), and on TV in “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys,” “Against the Law,” “Lemon Sky,” and “All My Children.”

Olivia Sklar is a co-founder and Artistic Producer with Hudson Stage. She has co-produced all of its productions and staged readings along with her two partners. She appeared in its production of Baltimore Star and several of the company’s staged readings. A native New Yorker whose passion for the theatre began at an early age, she studied as a teen in London and went on to receive her BFA in Acting from the SUNY Purchase Theatre Program. She worked as an actress on-stage in NYC and regionally and spent many years in daytime television most recently on ABC-TV’s One Life to Live. She played Helen Bell in German Public Television’s Anton Webern. Her film credits include roles in the Cannes festival award-winning Sidewalk Stories and Disney Touchstone’s True Identity.

Programming for Hudson Stage is made possible by the North Castle Public Library, The Westchester Arts Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.